Subject: Author blurb. New book. Russian gay life.
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 1996 18:49:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Tuller
My name is Dave Tuller and I cover lesbian/gay issues as a staff
reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle. I wanted to let people know
about my new book on lesbians and gays in the former Soviet
Union--"Cracks in the Iron Closet: Travels in Gay and Lesbian Russia."
It's very much about lesbians as well as gay men; a large section is
devoted to a close-knit circle of women who befriended me in Moscow.
Other topics include: men imprisoned for sodomy; Russia's rich tradition
of homoerotic literature; gay/lesbian life in Siberia; Russian
transsexuals; strange Russian theories of homosexuality; the struggles of
the emerging gay political movement; and lots and lots of men and
women simply telling their stories.
I have a web page, with a couple of chapters on-line. The URL is:
www.sfgate.com/~dtuller/ironcloset/
My e-mail address: dtuller@sfgate.com
I'm available to speak on college campuses. In several cases, the
Slavic centers and queer studies folk have joined forces to sponsor my
appearance.
Here, for the record, is what the New Yorker said about the book in
its August 12th issue:
"The writer travelled to post-Communist Russia expecting to encounter
brutal, Stalinist-era conditions for gay men and lesbians, and instead
found a society that upended his American-bred notions of sexual
categories...Tuller's observant reporting and personal experiences make
for absorbing reading: the human comedy rendered in unexpected ways."
And here's the jacket quote from Edmund White:
" 'Cracks in the Iron Closet' is as remarkable for its portrait of an
emerging homosexual society in Russia as it is for the alternative it
presents to American-style lesbian and gay culture. In the course of
his travels, this intelligent, perceptive writer was himself
radically changed. This book will cause any lesbian or gay reader to
reexamine completely his or her assumptions."
And the jacket quote from Lillian Faderman:
"A terrific read. With keen intelligence, David Tuller demonstrates
how complex and nuanced and varied human sexuality really is."
Here's my own boiler-plate spiel about the book:
"Cracks in the Iron Closet" is part travel memoir, part social
history, part journalistic inquiry. It is also an off-beat love story:
part of it revolves around my romance with Ksyusha, a charismatic
Russian lesbian who became my closest friend in Moscow. (Since I'm a
gay man from the Castro, I was really surprised by this development!)
In describing how my experiences in Russia challenged my own (very
American) preconceptions and biases about gay identity, the book
examines--in an entertaining and provocative fashion--controversies that
have roiled the American gay and lesbian movement in recent years: How
does culture influence the expression of sexual identity? What are the
limits of American models of gay and lesbian identity? What "causes"
homosexuality, anyway? And where does bisexuality fit into it all?
The book is available at most independent bookstores and can also be
ordered from most on-line booksellers.
Thanks--Dave T.